This invention relates to a swimming pool dome. More particularly, the invention relates to a swimming pool dome which employs vertical structural walls, and a plurality of inflatable sections formed between the walls, designed for raising a pool cover in a rigid dome shape and retaining the rigid dome shape even under heavy rain or snow storms.
A wide variety of pool covers are available for keeping debris out of outdoor swimming pools while they are not in use during the fall and winter seasons. However, many of the existing pool covers allow many gallons of rainwater, snow, ice, and unwanted debris to build-up on the cover. This not only causes the cover to sag under the weight accumulation of the water and debris but also increases the possibility of contaminating the pool water with algae, dust, and dirt that are often mixed with the collected water. In addition, when the swimming pools are reopened in the spring, it is difficult to remove the pool cover without having the accumulation of water and debris collected on top thereof from falling into the pool water.
Various references uncovered in the prior art provide inflatable swimming pool covers to achieve an arched configuration over the pool in an effort to keep debris out of the pool. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,048,678 to Chillino discloses a swimming pool cover which extends dome-like over the entire pool and has a skirt welded to the inner surface of the cover and engaging the pool walls. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,254 to Terreri discloses a pool cover support comprising a balloon positioned between the water surface and a cover for elevating the center of the cover. U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,239 to Gadsby discloses another inflatable swimming pool cover which floats on the swimming pool water surface and has a bulbous surface rising above the level of the swimming pool perimeter. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,144,704 to Genzel discloses a pool cover utilizing multiple, laterally displaced air compartments which are fixed in location with respect to each other, and are integral portions of the cover.
Despite all these inflatable swimming pool covers, there is still a further need to provide an improved pool dome. Such a pool dome should serve to give rainwater, leaves, and the like a path to slide down so they do not accumulate on the pool cover, thereby reducing amount of work necessary to reopen the pool in the spring. Moreover, such a pool dome should incorporate vertical structural walls which adds sufficient strength to the supporting capabilities of the inflatable sections to allow the pool dome to resist a wide range of forces of nature that it may experience during the fall and winter seasons.
While these units mentioned above may be suitable for the particular purpose employed, or for general use, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as disclosed hereafter.